The invention concerns shifting jaw clamping tools such as vises and beam or pipe clamps and, more particularly, means for extending the jaws of a clamping tool to accommodate larger workpieces.
It is of course well known to provide a range of tool sizes to suit the work in hand. But for many users it is not cost effective to purchases several sizes of tool. Larger sizes, particularly, may be needed too infrequently to justify their purchases.
Adapters for vise jaws are well known. They may modify the jaws to avoid marring the workpiece, or to grip particular shapes. Some adapters may also increase effective throat depth. But, in general, these known adapters mount directly on existing jaw members and must fit closely for stability, so that they must be specific to particular tool models or brands.
The well known beam or pipe clamp offers some opportunity for economy. The basic elongated frame member may simply be a piece of standard weight black pipe of selected length. Onto this pipe may be assembled any one of a range of pairs of jaws of a size suitable to the job on hand. With the pipe clamp, a shift in size does not require a complete new tool, but, again for many users the purchase of a range of clamp jaw sizes still cannot be justified. The frequent particular need is for a jaw configuration of greater depth and more capacity or more accommodating to irregular shapes. The larger work is often relatively light so that the strength of the regular commercial larger size of clamp is not needed. Jaw adapters or extenders for beam clamps are not known.